Mini Q-Tron modifications

In a complete departure from my usual posts about cars, my bus, or even working on an old house, today's post is about my electrical experiments on an Electro-Harmonix Mini Q-Tron. It took me quite a bit of time to find bits and pieces of advice on how to meaningfully modify these things, so this may help others who endeavor to do the same. I do need to point out that my experiments and eventual (partial) success was only possible because of folks on various forums making small modifications and improvements.

What / Why Mini Q-Tron

So, what is a Mini Q-Tron and why would anyone want it and then want to modify it? It is a "T-Wah" or touch-wah pedal (also called an envelope filter) that adds a fixed amount of "wah" or flange to the signal passed into it versus a classic wah pedal that changes the tone based on how the user moves the "accelerator" pedal. There are 3 knobs that control the intensity, shape and tone of the change. Why would you want it? On a bass, it has very limited application, but it's fun. I imagine a Q-Tron is much more useful for a guitarist, especially if you are seeking that early-80's Jerry Garcia tone before he started experimenting with Midi. Anyway, if it's so fun, why modify it?

There is 1 big reason why the Mini Q-Tron goes from "hey this is cool" to sits-on-a-shelf-never-used or simply returned/sold: the volume output of the unit is louder when turned on than when by-passed. So, if you're playing something and want to add a little T-Wah to it, you click it on and suddenly you are much louder. So, turning it on and off during a song is not possible without a volume pedal next to it or some other pedal configuration. I have tried placing a compressor after it, and that helps, but if you like to have some uncompressed signal pass thru your compressor (and your compressor supports that like mine does), the volume spike will still be experienced after the compressor. To address the volume change between by-pass and in-use, we add a volume knob. That solves the 1 big reason.

In my opinion, there is a second short-coming with the Mini Q-Tron: it lacks a blend control. A blend control is another knob allows some degree of original (called "dry") signal to pass through even when the pedal is in use. This adds another whole dimension to the T-Wah effect. You can set intensity and shape that you want and then vary how much influence that changed sound has on your final output. A blend control often appears on bass-centric pedals so some unmodified signal can pass through.

Last, for me, this pedal was a gift. I can't return it and guilt would prevent me from selling it. I got it almost 20 years ago and it has sat on a shelf most of that time. I figure if I damage or destroy it, I haven't lost anything other than time. I suppose purposely destroying a gift could be worse than selling it, but let's not get all caught up in ethics here. Besides, this kind of electrical work is fun: clean, relatively modern wiring managed while indoors (versus 50 years old in the rain).

Output Volume Knob

There is a great thread on the TalkBass forum that goes into some detail similar to what I described above. More importantly, there are 2 pictures which show exactly where to make modifications to include a volume knob. Out of respect for the author and the forum, I won't repost the text nor images, but you basically add a potentiometer between the circuit board and the switch, in the signal path of the blue wire. What was not clearly defined was the size of the resistor. The forum-goers seemed to circle around a 10k pot, and I found that to be almost as useless as no knob at all. The knob had very little room for adjustment between no signal and full signal. There are limits to my purchasing and experimenting, but even the 2k pot I am using now has a limited amount of sweep on it. I have it less than a 2/3 turn off the bottom (see picture on the right here) since it is effectively full signal above that. The 10k pot had significantly less room before full signal passed; it was like a nudge off the bottom. I might try a 500ohm pot if I grow tired of small bumps to the knob changing the output dramatically. As it is, the volume is mostly set-and-forget since the whole point is having the volume not spike simply from the pedal being engaged. I say mostly because depending on what is upstream, you may actually have to change the volume. I discovered that during a jam this past weekend.

Other than the resistor value, I followed the instructions fairly closely and tested the output by sending signal into my compressor and adjusting the knob based on the compressor input LED's values until they remained the same when turning the Q-Tron on and off. At this point, I felt had the Q-Tron fairly well-tamed. I even drilled the hole on the face of the case, passed the stalk up thru, nutted it down and stuck a knob on there. That's my mini Q-Tron in the picture on the right at this point.

Blend Control

I have tried the Q-Tron like that for a little bit and I like the wah effect, but not all the time and sometimes it got to the point of being intrusive. At least now, I can add it mid-song and not throw the bass way out in front of everything else. There are some songs, like maybe some old 70's tunes or artists (like the Meters, Parliament or even Bill Withers, for example) that lend themselves well to a little wah on the bass. Even if the volume is consistent, the effect doesn't sit in the mix EQ right: the low end is completely sacrificed; this is exactly why bass effect pedals often have a blend knob. You can't have fat 70's funk and no low end. That just ain't happenin. To remedy, I want to add some original signal back in. I could split the signal before it enters the Q-Tron and have another pedal control the signal flow, but floorspace on small stages is already at a premium and the fewer things I need to plug together, the fewer things that could go wrong. So, I started looking into adding a blend control to the pedal. Regardless of how well my GoogleFu was working any given day, I was unable to find a simple pictorial or text-only how-to anywhere. So, I went experimenting without a net, and while it was interesting, they were ultimately fruitless. Hopefully these efforts help someone else, but at minimum, I now understand that blending something that could form a circuit loop requires more than a simple stacked knob.... which is why I could not find something simple. There isn't one.

Blend Attempt Learnings

I tried anyway, and documented my experiments here so you don't waste your time. A blend control potentiometer is unlike a volume or tone knob. Those other knobs have one variable resistor, generally accepting signal from the center post and directing it to one post or the other based on the position of the control stalk. They are not all like this so take resistance measurements so you know what you have before you warm up your solder iron. For blending, you cannot simply direct 2 separate inputs into the outer posts to vary what comes out the middle (think like a hot-cold water faucet). It just doesn't work that way. A blend control knob is effectively 2 stacked volume or control knobs managed by a single central stalk. The idea is that when turned one way, the resistance on the upper variable goes one direction while the lower variable goes the opposite direction, depending on which posts you are comparing. In this way, you can control 2 levels to go in opposite or similar directions at the same time.

The blend pots are not always linear and do not all behave like this, though. The NM pot that I started with, for example, has a curve such that at the exact center both sources are at 100%. As the knob moves away from center, one of the stacks drops in volume (raises in resistance) while the other remains constant. In an "AC" knob, the curves are more parabolic, crossing at the middle. So, only at the extreme end is a signal at it's highest or lowest.

To help illustrate the wiring, I nabbed the image up above on the right, here, from a guitar forum post which was describing how to wire up a blend knob between 2 pickups. Similar to the volume knob, the decisions around the resistance value for the blend were not easy. On that forum, it was posed that a lower resistance range would create a smoother transition, so using a NM100k pot would be better than a NM250k pot. It was also made clear that the values of the blend had little to no bearing on the resistance value of an independent volume knob and vice-versa (volume no impact on blend value). Last, I have read varying accounts about grounding or not grounding the blend (black wire path in the drawing). I started with ungrounded cuz easier. It seemed to me that the lower the resistance value, the better the transition, so I got the lowest blend pot I could find: NM25k. I figured if it was too low and it effectively worked like a 3 position switch: all-On | 50-50 | all-Off it would still be better than not having it at all, and then I would explore other, higher resistance settings to find a true blend. Of course, this was all guitarists talking and when I went to some bass forums, it seemed that the lower resistance values would trim some of the bottom end tone. Regardless, I saw that after I'd gotten the NM25k.

I did all the wiring and tested it out, and when the knob was off the center detent, the signal was controlled as I expected it to be: a relative percentage of wet or dry signal relative to the knob position. The issue was when the knob was at or just off center. This is where the "NM" designation above may be important. The curve for an NM pot allows for half of the sweep of the knob to be at full volume while the other half is being reduced. So, at center you have full signal from both sources. Maybe, in the case of building this blend for this application, that was too much signal. Regardless of cause, I got this super-high, almost feedback sound through it when the knob was at center. The picture on the right was taken before I tried out some ground options that seemed to help. Like, I added grounding to the blend knob and the volume knob. The feedback persisted at dead-center. Maybe it was feedback, with a processed signal passing back into the "dry" from where the blend knob was wiring them together at the switch when the knob was at the center of the sweep. I could add a one-way gate to the "dry" signal entering the knob. Or, I could try an "AC" knob that has a very different volume curve that may prevent the feedback loop simply by how the volume levels are controlled.

So, I ordered an AC blend pot and dug into my electrical stuff for the not-gate diode that I used in Hapy's ignition before I re-wired him. I added it to the black-with-white-stripe wire on the left side of the image above, with the side with a stripe (cathode) pointing towards the blend knob. A not-gate diode is basically the same as a back-flow in your plumbing: it prevents the signal from going the wrong way. Signal can go from the anode to the cathode, but not the other way.  I did not give 2 thinks about the size of the diode relative to my project, and the results were enlightening but not right. For Hapy's ignition, the amount of resistance was relatively meaningless since a ton of 12V signal was present. For this, where we are working with miliVolts, this diode introduces considerable resistance to the overall dry signal heading for the blend knob. So much resistance, in fact, that it virtually kills the dry signal, but the feedback stopped. I tried the cathode reversed but that didn't work either. Besides, I had it oriented correctly, it's just the wrong value.

In the end, I removed the diode and returned the unit to the way it was (volume control only). I intend to return when I can find an elegant solution, be it the correct diode or another entire circuit board to add in (maybe something like this). I'm hoping the former, but will do the later if I find I am enjoying the Q-Tron and want to adjust it that little bit more. I took the Q-Tron to a jam on Saturday with a few other pedals I don't get to play with very often, and found that adding a phaser after the Q-Tron took some of the bite out of the t-wah without losing the fun. It felt like some of the lower end came back thru the phaser too, so maybe there's hope for this pedal without a blend control. Time will tell.

Thanks, as always, for following along. I will return to my more typical car/bus/house stuff next time-

Fixing Hapy Furnace (part 2)

Picking up where I left off the last post, Hapy has an operational furnace again.

Fuel Pump Swap

As I mentioned in my last post, the fuel pump which originally delivered with the heater/furnace would not work when I tried to bring things back to life. I splurged and bought a more expensive "quiet" model for $50US rather than another standard pump for $20US. I figured quieter or not, the more expensive pump may have better parts in it, and it may last longer whether it is quieter or not. Or it was just a marketing gimmick and I got took. Let's chalk it up to the cost of an experiment.

The old fuel line path was relatively simple. The "hard" (clear but firm plastic) lines that delivered with the furnace had short (50mm / 2-inch) stretches of fuel hose between them and the pump. The pump was suspended from a cross beam by the included rubber mount held in place by a single sheet metal screw. After a few turns with a screwdriver, the pump was on the ground. A few more and the fuel lines were removed from it. The supply fuel line started dripping fuel after a few seconds, so I caught it with a pan. The line on the pressurized side was completely empty, so no drips. I simply reversed the removal: added the rubber mount from the supply end of the pump, added the supply fuel line, suspended the pump from the cross beam and then added the pressurized-side line.

Prime and Fire Up

The Afterburner has a control page where you can direct only the fuel pump to fire up. This allows you to get fuel all the way to the furnace without the glow plug turning on (drawing the battery and maybe burning out the glow plug). I had not connected the pressure line to the furnace, but I wanted to clear the lines of any bad fuel, so I moved the pan under the dangling hardline and triggered the Afterburner to prime. Within a minute of the prime starting, fuel started spurting out the end of the line. It took longer than I expected it to, but perhaps that is an indication of how little fuel these units actually consume. Once the fuel leaving the pressure line looked like the fuel supplied at a filling station, I stopped the prime function and connected the hardline to the fuel hose dangling from the furnace.

While the pump was slightly larger than the original, it did not seem much quieter during the prime. Of course, I hadn't heard it pump in a couple of years, and memory is a funny thing. I do recall that when the furnace was running, I could hear the tick-tick-tick of the fuel pump over the whoosh of the furnace. With this in mind, I set the furnace to start. I did not want to consider the experiment with the new thicker, dedicated wiring yet, so I left the battery tender hooked up. At no point did the battery fall below 13.5V so either the tender was working hard, or the new wiring is a hit.

Regardless, the glow plug got lit, the fan started spinning and after 2 or 3 minutes the furnace ignited. This felt like a considerably longer period of time than before. Perhaps the priming was incomplete and I needed to prime again after connecting the hose to the furnace. Perhaps it took time to ignite simply because it had been so long. Once it ignited, a huge plume of smoke poured out of the little muffler. There was virtually no wind, so the cloud grew and sat slowly obscuring first the rear end of the bus and slowly 2/3 of the bus before a light breeze broke it up. After a few minutes, the cloud dissipated and the exhaust emission was reduced to nothing. All that remained was a light smokey haze inside the bus. I regret not taking a picture of that.

Noise Observations

While the temperature inside the bus slowly crept up from 55*F (13*C), I noted the noises. I could only hear the fuel pump ticking inside the cabinet where the furnace is located and even then, only when I stuck my head into the cabinet. I think the pressurized line is transmitting it. I stuck my head into the rock-n-roll cabinet above the spot where pump is actually installed and could not hear it. Maybe this new pump is quieter. Then, I moved outside where in the past I could clearly hear the pump from several feet away, even from the passenger-door side. I could not hear it, but I could hear the furnace whoosh. Of course, my muffler-ing of the furnace is different this time, having removed the second small rectangular muffler and the motorbike muffler. Perhaps the pump is no quieter, but the furnace is that much louder. To determine if the muffler configuration is a variable, I decided I will conduct another test at a different time, after re-attaching the other muffler bits. I had thought about bringing them along for while-parked use, and maybe I will need to, out of respect for our festival-going neighbors. In the past, I took decibel readings, but they were for while the furnace held a temperature, not during temp catch-up (full blast).

I will continue to experiment with noise readings and post if I find any readings are different than they were 4 years ago. I expect that once I put the extra rectangular and motorbike mufflers on, the readings will be what they were before. The only real mystery to me is whether the fuel pump can be heard over it. At this point, though, the pump seems significantly quieter.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Fixing Hapy Furnace (part 1)

Having finally arrived at a place where we have some heat while we're moving, I felt motivated to fix the heat for when we are standing still. Today's post covers most of the saga of getting a Chinese diesel heater operational again. Spoiler alert: the heater isn't running by the end of this post.

Brief History

Back in the early days of CoViD, I installed one of those Chinese diesel parking heaters into Hapy (See Parking Heater 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Final for deep detail). While I was able to run it a few times, I found that the heater pulled the voltage way down on whichever battery was connected to it. I tried to solve by providing multiple batteries to source from: one to start, one to run, but switching from battery to battery seemed like a bad practice. I had other priorities, so I just let the furnace sit unused. When I did the sound deadening effort and the luxury electrical re-wire, I dismantled the cabinet which housed the furnace so I could get sound deadener underneath it and electrical cables through it. This meant dismantling part of the furnace too. Later, when the band wanted to use Hapy for the album cover, I removed the furnace exhaust so it would not appear in pictures. So, I had a furnace without an exhaust, and would draw way too much juice.

Electrical

Over time, and with more learning about electrical stuff, I have concluded that the wire used to convey electricity but perhaps more importantly the wire for a ground were far too thin. It was due to these thin wires that the voltage would drop so badly as the furnace attempted to compensate. Wires which would have been barely up to the job had the battery been sitting right on top of the heater will definitely NOT be up to the task once you move the battery a few feet away. This is exacerbated by running the ground to the body of the bus instead of back to the battery. The ground location should not matter as much, but I'm citing it as a participant cause anyway. So, addressing the electrical came first after removing the furnace from the bus.

A small harness of wires leaves the furnace body and enters a black plug (see picture on the right). The harness that ships with the furnace includes a pigtail that clicks into the furnace black plug. To my eye, the red and black wires in the pigtail are not nearly as thick as the wires leaving the furnace. This probably saved the manufacturer a few pennies, but the amp draw issue starts right there (and in my case got worse). So, I cut the main power and main ground wires from the furnace black plug and put male/female wire ends on them (12V/ground respectively). I made them different so I couldn't accidentally plug it in backwards. I then prepped a thick 2-wire black/red cable with matching wire ends, and routed it over to the luxury battery. At the battery end, I added a ring terminal for the ground and added a 20Amp fuse into the positive side before adding a ring terminal on that end. I left things detached as I switched to preparing for the exhaust.

Exhaust

From under the bus, it was clear that I had not made the hole(s) large enough for the exhaust, intake and fuel to be easily maintained. Quite the contrary, I had installed it such that once it was all together, it would have to all come apart to fix anything. Frowny-face. So, I started by cutting a 4-inch square hole into the lower belly pan. Many buses do not have these, but I got lucky. Anyway, with the hole cut I could see where the furnace sat, and noticed that the exhaust was getting pinched by the too-small hole in the floor as the exhaust left the furnace. So, I went topside and expanded the upper hole both in the floor of the cabinet and the steel floor of the bus. With the larger hole, the exhaust easily fits and things could be maintained from below. Still, I did what I could on the furnace itself before lowering it in: Connect a 6" long stretch of fuel line, attach a small circle of window screen to the intake (so bugs and pebbles don't get in) and then attach maybe a foot of heat-wrapped exhaust. I set the furnace in place and attached a small subset of the muffler arrangement I had used before: just one rectangular muffler. I may bring the expanded muffler set up for use when we are in tighter camping spots (like festivals), so we can bolt-on some extra quiet. I mounted the muffler to the underside of the frame rail, with the outlet pointing rearward and slightly away from center (picture on the right).

A keen eye can see some fresh Rustoleum primer + paint above the muffler where I discovered some rust had eaten all the way through the body. When I was working on the other stuff I ground the metal down, removing the rust, but exposing the holes. Sadness. That rust traces back to when this bus had a small vent window directly above this spot. That vent window was badly leaking and the rust had already been forming to the point of marring the paint when I bought this bus over 20 years ago. I eliminated the vent window in 2015 (See Calling "glass") with a window I purchased from BusBoys in Redding, CA in 2009. Some things move slower than others.

Fuel

I shifted over to fueling at this point. The fuel line that had been between the included "hard" line and the furnace had breeched, probably when I did the sound deadening. The fuel in the line looked dark, so I dropped the line into an empty pail, and figured I would prime the fuel system, and purge the bad fuel at the same time. Unfortunately, the fuel pump is no longer functional, so I am waiting on a replacement to finish this job.

Afterburner

Back when I first did this job, I bought an Afterburner from the guy who hand builds them in Australia. Apparently, there are people building knock-offs, eating into his business, since they basically have cloned his work. So, if you are looking at getting the much nicer controller for your parking heater, please connect with Mr. Jones in Australia and get the real deal. Anyway, with the Afterburner, I tried to prime the fuel system, but the fuel pump wouldn't respond. When I unplugged the pump, I got a code; I concluded the wiring to the pump was good but pump was bad. So I ordered a new, supposedly quieter, one. We'll see. While I was clowning around with the Afterburner, I got it onto my home network, downloaded the newest firmware and wandered around the new-to-me website that the Afterburner hosts. It's really cool. I am looking forward to triggering the furnace to warm the bus from inside. For reference, here is a link to the user manual.

This is as far as I've gotten. I am waiting for a new fuel pump to arrive. I need to purge the old lines of nasty fuel, and install that new pump. I expect there will be other discoveries, and I need to rebuild the cabinet innards. There's always opportunities to improve things. Anyway, thanks, as always, for following along-

Diesel Dumping Discontinued

In my last post, I discovered that the injection pump was leaking fairly badly. Today's brief post covers my replacing the 2 top seals.

Symptoms

If you don't open your hood very often, especially while the engine is running, any leak may not be obvious. With the engine under the rear deck, and the rear deck often having stuff on it, I hadn't seen the leaks evolve. On my last few drives, I had smelled diesel fuel, and I had made a mental note of it. Honestly, I thought it was related to the now-not-operational furnace which still had a diesel line filled with diesel running to it. I suspect I fueled with something which was not B20 and that caused the seals to shrink. Recall, I wanted to run the air out of the new heater so I popped open the rear-deck engine lid (I cut in years ago) and fired up the engine. I walked to the back of the bus and could see fuel dumping down the sides of the injection pump. I dashed to the driver seat and turned off the engine. Returning to the engine bay, I added coolant, but tried to figure out where the fuel was coming from. It looked like it was coming from the black plug on the side, and maybe out of the edge along the top on the opposite side. The top seals had finally shrunk to the point of being compromised.

DieselGeek

There are lots of sources for seals and seal kits, but IMHO, the best is from DieselGeek (like here). The operator is a TDI owner and only sells things he actually uses. His opinions are highly regarded on Fred's TDICLub forum too. The kit is complete; and you will want to include an anti-tamper socket (here) to get that one fastener removed. His product page contains a link to a complete how-to (also linked here) that will take you through the process. Since it is so well documented, I will not repeat it here. I will only highlight things that I discovered that either differ or underscore that documentation.

Clean and Mark Pump Location

After ordering the kit, I went out to Hapy and cleaned outer case of the Injecion Pump with degreaser. I paid special attention to the seams where the seals would be replaced. Once clean and dry, I applied the JB Weld (as instructed) on 2 corners of the pump covering the lower seals both above and below. This will allow for a more precise re-location of the pump after the lower seal has been replaced. I also took a chisel and made a clear mark that crossed the seam. For good measure, I added lines with a Sharpie. Although diesel fuel can remove Sharpie lines, I did not suffer that fate.

Top Seal

Following the instructions, I replaced the top seal first. Before I started, I wrapped the Injection Pump below the lower seal with a ratty old towel to capture spilling diesel fuel. This turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, but when I need to replace these seals again, I will do the towel wrap again anyway. Better to be safe. I left the return fuel line attached and tilted the cover far enough so I could reach the old seal. With a watch-repair slotted screwdriver, I picked out the seal. It looked fine, but I did notice that it was practically flat with the edge of the cap, so I could imagine how it could be leaking. Once removed, the groove was perfectly clean. I gave it a cursory pass with a paper towel anyway and the new seal slid in perfectly. Before returning the cap to the pump, I noticed some gunk buildup on the black-plug side so I carefully scraped it off with a razor blade and then wiped it clean with a paper towel. It is little things like that which can prevent a complete seal.

Bottom Seal

The lower seal is a little tricky, but, again, the instructions were spot-on with only one exception: The Torx bolt holding the corner directly below the fuel return may not be easily addressed, depending on your tools. The picture below-right illustrates the issue. My Torx socket fits a 1/2" ratchet so it's rather thick. It is also kind of stubby, so the socket itself needs to occupy the space where the fuel return is. So, either have longer throw Torx sockets or do what I did: Remove the cap to remove and install that once fastener. Yes, that's a pain in the butt, but I found no alternative other than loosening the banjo bolt, and after the power steering debacle with Flash all those years ago, I want nothing to do with a banjo bolt if I can avoid it. I just went looking for the post and I can't find one. I can't believe I didn't post on the saga of replacing Flash's steering rack, like, 10 years ago. The banjo bolt was nearly the death of me; my thumb swelled up from applying pressure to get things bolted together... it was a nightmare.

Similar to the upper seal, once the unit was unbolted, the TDIClub documented process was spot-on. Even the "smack it with a bit of wood to crack the JB Weld worked as written. I did not remove the hose from the fuel return line, however. I just tipped the unit back far enough to remove the seal without fear of something dropping into the top of the pump. I also found some gunk build up along one side on this piece, like I did on the cover. So, I did the same thing: slowly scraping it clear and then cleaning the metal with a paper towel. With the seal in place, I again followed the instruction to make sure the little drive stick entered the hole on the piston (you can feel it locate) and set the unit in place, using the fracture lines in the JB Weld to position. Because of how thick the new seal is compared to the old one, there was some wiggle space in the fractures, so the extra marks, bot the chisel and the Sharpie, were necessary to get the unit in the right spot.

Because of the Torx socket challenge, I got 2 of the fasteners on, then removed the cover, put the other Torx fastener in place. At this point, I re-set the location of the top unit comparing the lines again. Then, I tightened down the 3 Torx bolts hand-tight. Since these are brass bolts going into aluminum, the threads can strip, so mind your torque settings (less than 8 ft-pounds). Content, I put the cover back on, added the anti-tamper bolt and the cover Torx bolts.

Testing

At this point, it is recommended to prime the system with a MityVac. I read some comments by users who did not need to do so. I thought I would try starting before getting into the hand-vac, and Hapy fired right up. I walked around to the back and there were no leaks, and he idled nicely around 903 rpm like always. The test for whether the little drive-stick is in place is simply to try the accelerator. If the engine RPM's change, it's in there. Success. So, we took a quick drive around the usual test loop. Hapy was responsive and slowly warmed up. As part of my test drive, I tried the heater.. that worked too! I could feel warm air blowing up through the defroster.

When I got home, I noticed that Hapy was having a harder time maintaining a consistent idle. He would drop down around 875 and go up around 950. I vaguely remember this being a thing for him and a quick tap on the accelerator settled him down. I don't know why this is a dynamic for him, but with the seals replaced he is acting exactly how he used to... without dumping fuel.

That's it for today. I hope to get after the furnace next. We'll see what the future holds. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Hapy Heat Repeat (Part 2)

Continuing the efforts on creating some cabin heat in the old microbus, today's post covers sourcing the air for the heater from inside the bus.

Grounding

air sourcing from inside

In the last post on this topic, I mentioned that the prior attempts, and the original heat, for that matter, all pulled in air from the outside. The original heat pulled from the engine bay, sent it through heater-boxes (insulated boxes around the exhaust manifolds) and then up to the front of the bus. There was even a booster fan to push air when the engine speed was too low to push air. Years ago, I added a bilge-blower fan mid-stream to help get the air forward, and replaced large sections of pipe with insulated hose. In the end, the original system at-best, delivered warm moist air when it was raining (again, it's Oregon so that's 8 months of the year). When not-best, we got cold moist air that smelled like oil or exhaust.

When I did the ALH-TDI engine swap, I removed the original system rear of the front frame, setting a Vanagon rear-seat heater against that frame crossmember. While it didn't leak for a while, it started leaking again this past year. The unit was really never up to the task, and since it was only designed to heat the rear of a Vanagon cabin, I was probably asking too much of it. Still, it was a significant improvement over the original and bilge-blower-enhanced systems. The air was warmer more often, and exhaust-smelled less often. Overall, though, it was not "warm" in Hapy from the use of the heater, and the issue with moist air remained.

Fast forward to the Maradyne heater I just installed. Unlike the Vanagon rear-seat heater, the Maradyne is a 3-row heater core and it is almost twice the width. The core alone could provide considerably more heat. The fan is way more powerful too, so moving that heat into the cabin will be that much more  effective. What remained, however, is the air is still sourced from below the bus, so the wet roads will provide an endless supply of moist air to fling onto the inside of the windscreen. I hope I resolved that with the changes below.

Maradyne Heater Prep

purists love this

In the last post on this topic, I described how the heater was installed on an angle to minimize the ground clearance impact and so the outlets point more directly at the original air pipe. This orientation, however, meant that the brackets were hanging into the space where air intake hoses would go. So, first order of business was cutting those brackets down with the death-wheel (angle grinder). Once cleared, I could easily see that the coolant outlet jutted too far into the same air-hose space so I cut it down as well. Last, I changed the hose from the outlet from a straight hose to a 45* angled hose, routing the coolant above and away from the air inlet. While the inlet is not completely exposed now, it is considerably better. The inlets are 3" diameter and have a lip that's maybe 3/8" for a hose to fit onto. I had intended to add something more substantial for the hose to attach to, but once I got into it, I concluded that the original fan housing could hold a hose and clamp. Time will tell, and I am retaining the extensions I bought for this purpose in case I need to add them in later.

Holy Bus

Well, more like holey bus. In order to send air from inside the bus to the air intake on a fan system that is outside the bus, I need to add a hole or 2 for the air to pass through. I did not want to put air intakes in places where I would accidentally spill water (or other beverages), or get dirt and the like into it. I also did not want the air intakes to be so close to the front that the fan was effectively pulling the warm air right out of the outlet vents. I applied some cold-air-return thinking and chose to put one intake inside the rock-n-roll bed base cabinet. This cabinet is probably the coldest space in the bus (second only to my feet) and the vacuum created by the fan will draw air from the front to the back, creating room for the warmer air to enter the bus more freely. Of course, it's not like a 50+ year old microbus is sealed, but my 70+ year old house isn't either and once I tied the cold air intake into the house system, the house grew measurably warmer.

From underneath, I considered where there was a space without structure nor pipes to interfere with the air intake plumbing. With the radiator, wiring, original stuff and everything else, it is quite busy under there, but there is a space just behind the rear cross-frame (think: rear jack-point) but in front of the rear wheel well that is inside the cabinet, nearest the front outer edge. I tested a few spots with a drill to make sure that I could fit a 3-1/2" circle without hitting something neither underneath nor inside the cabinet and found a good spot. I cored a 3-1/2" hole with a hole saw. Why 3-1/2"? The inner diameter of these hoses is 3", and I felt that leaving a little extra room for wiggling was better than having it tight as would have been with a 3-1/4" hole. This turned out to be a wise decision. Once the hole was cut, I shot it and the support brackets with paint to delay (can it really be stopped when it rains 9 months of the year?) rust.

Fitting

cabin air intake

Once the hole was cut, I was on the home stretch. I found what look like air outlets with metal grills that fit a 3" hose to act as an air intake screen. I a-fixed one end of the hose to the grill, cable-tied it to be double-sure and passed the hose through the hole from above. The hose barely fit. It was so tight, I had to cut off the cable-tie because the cable tie end prevented the grill from sitting flat on the floor. Anyway, I chose an orientation that pointed the grill away from the center of the cabinet so things don't accidentally fall in or over it and then screwed it down to the wood floor of the cabinet. From underneath, I stretched out the compressed hose, stretching it along the side of the radiator, and turning it towards the fan.

I had initially planned to have 2 air intakes, one per fan intake, but after cutting the passenger-side hole, decided that I had 3" of outlet, so having only 3" of inlet was actually a fair balance. So, rather than run 2, I added a 3" wye along the passenger-side frame rail. I sent the stretched and then cut hose into the base of the wye and shifted to the fan inlet on the driver side, knowing it would be the harder of the two. I can always choose to add a driver-side inlet, but with the furnace on that side, there will be additional complexities.

The driver-side was definitely harder, but simply because the coolant outlet hose still ran across the air flow path. I twisted and bent the air hose and jammed it onto the inlet lip. I added a hose clamp while pressing the hose onto the lip, threading the clamp until it was quite secure. Content, I stretched out the hose, threading it behind the fan housing, but in front of the radiator intake to the passenger side. I added a cable-tie on the driver-side to hold the air hose in place. I cut and then sent the other end of the hose into the wye. It got another cable-tie up to the underside of the bus before it entered the wye.

The section from the passenger side air intake to the wye was a little over a foot, and was the easiest part of the install. I attached to the fan intake first, adding a hose clamp, of course. Once stretched and cut into the wye, I cable-tied the wye up near the floor of the bus, mostly out of sight. I cable-tied the passenger-side hose as well so there would be minimal pressure on the hose clamp. At this point, the air intake for the cabin "climate control" sourced from the inside of the bus.

Testing

ground clearance mostly unchanged

All that remained was testing the system, both for air flow as well as coolant. I started with the air flow, accepting that I could confirm that without running the engine. As expected, the fan blows hard, and draws through the inlet. Because the inlet is inside cabinet, it make less noise than it might have had it been placed elsewhere. Still, I will need to be aware of it when we pack things so it is not even remotely blocked.

Satisfied, I exposed the top of the engine and started it up. I had expected to simply add coolant/water while air bubbles appeared but 2 things interrupted that plan. First and worst, the injector pump started leaking all over the place. Now, to be fair, I had smelled diesel on my last couple of drives, so this was not 100% a surprise, but it still was a little bit. Second, air bubbles did not really appear. I will need to bleed the heater core segment, once I replace a seal or two in the injector pump. A seal set has been ordered, so until the kit arrives and is installed, Hapy will sit.

That's where we are at this point. I may try to bleed the heater while I wait for the seal kit, but it will depend on the weather and my workweek. Thanks, as always, for following along. More next time-

Hapy Heat Repeat (Part 1)

Ask anyone who has owned or simply driven an old air-cooled Volkswagen in not-Summer and 9 times out of 10 they will regale you with tales of being cold. These awesome vehicles were designed to have heat, its just that they were also designed to be owner-maintained, and maintaining the cabin climate control is not easy. With aftermarket replacements of J-tubes for heater boxes, cardboard pieces eventually failing over time and long channels under the car (where road salt, etc gets in), it's no wonder heat doesn't make it. Anyway, today's post documents another attempt to get some warmth into Hapy, specifically onto my feet and maybe even onto the windscreen.

Why the Obsession

By now, you must wonder why am I so focused on getting heat into the bus. And I get it. Put on a coat or something, right? Besides, it's not like we really get snow in the Northwestern Willamette Valley. This is all true. For folks who own these cars and busses in genuine snow country, I suspect either they are summer-only vehicles or you are far more brave than I, driving in moon boots or something. Around here, we really only have about 10 weeks of warm-to-hot weather out of the 52 in a year. For the rest of the year it is either cold or cold and raining. Driving around in the cold is not as fun when you're bundled up (ski-gear head to toe) and still cold. Regardless, the temperature is hovering around the dew point during those 42 weeks, and overnight for most of the 10 weeks of warm-to-hot season. In the mountains, it approaches the dew point earlier in the evening and remains later into the morning. So, having a means of getting the fog off the windscreen, and not adding to it, is super important.

The Plan

so it begins

Last November, I posted an update (see: Hapy Update) where I replaced Hapy's crappy glow plugs with a new set. I did not circle-back on that since, but he has started without a hitch all winter. Those plugs are fantastic. The real test will be how well they behave next winter. Anyway, in that post, I mentioned that I had acquired a Maradyne Fans heater unit and shut off the Vanagon rear-seat-heat unit because I believed it had started leaking again. We had a "break" in the weather (almost 10*C / 50*F and only occasional rain), so I took the unit out to Hapy. The think was to remove the old, and swap in the new. Ain't nuttin ever that easy, but it's in now.

Old Heat Exit

The Vanagon rear-seat-heat was suspended from beneath the belly of the bus just forward off the radiator. I had fab'd a custom plenum from the heater unit into the original 3" diameter air channel, run coolant lines along the driver side to feed it and run electrical from the dash to control the fan. I hadn't tried to control the valve, choosing to leave it on or off by setting the valve before a drive instead. I unplugged the electrical first, then the flashing/plenum that routed the air into the 3" channel. Then I set to removing the heater from the underside of the bus. Both of the nuts at the bottom of the threaded bolt supporting the unit had rusted so I had to encourage them with a hammer.

Last, the coolant lines needed to be removed. I held the lines closed with vice grips so I did not lose a bunch of coolant and then set a dishpan underneath so I didn't spread coolant all over the ground when I disconnected things. The lines removed easily enough and a small amount of coolant dribbled into the pan. From this I concluded that the unit had been the source of the leak in the cooling system or there would have been more than the few ounces that appeared. I set the unit aside and shifted to the new heater.

New Heater Hung

mounting angle

For installing the new unit, I started with placement thinks. I wanted it in essentially the same place, running air into the same 3" diameter hole. The force and size of this new unit dwarfs the Vanagon rear-seat-heat unit, however. The Vanagon unit is 6" tall and about 9" wide. The Maradyne unit is also 6" tall, but it is almost 18" wide. The Maradyne unit arrived with a cover that had 3 3" vent protrusions. The outer edges of those protrusions are 13" apart, so I decided I would retain the cover and enclose the vent protrusions inside my new plenum. I was unable to reuse any of the old piece.

After some failed attempts to place the heater straight/level with the ground, I shifted the mounting hardware so the new heater was at approximate 45* angle with the bus, pointing upwards. One would reasonably assume this would cause the unit to hang considerably lower, but because of the placement of the fans, the unit is only about an inch lower. How? Well, in this configuration, the top edge of the heater unit nearly touches the floor of the bus. Neither the Vanagon rear-seat-heat nor this unit could do that in the horizontal position because of all the various pipes running under the floor. In the picture on the right, here, the heater looks much lower than the radiator; that is probably caused by the angle I held the phone. In reality, the radiator is a hair lower. The mounting brackets have 2 holes, designed to be used with the enclosed screws. Yes, that's right, screws, and short ones at that. With this install design weakness in mind, I suspended the heater from a pair of metal tubes under the bus floor with.. wait for it... cable ties. Yeah, that is so RoadKill; I am not a fan of using cable ties this way. Having said that, I have not ever experienced a failure with cable ties, and if my 20-year history with Hapy is any guide I will be up under this bus fairly frequently. So, I will be able to monitor the health of these ties and resolve before any real issue arises.

Plumb It

With the heater relatively stable, I flipped to the driver side of the bus and started working on the coolant lines. As I mentioned in the referenced post from November, I picked up an old-skool control valve. Prior to installing, I noticed that the valve seemed to operate more like a shut-off valve than a gradual taper. When "closed", it was definitely closed, but it remained mostly shut through about half of it's travel, then opened up very quickly through the next 1/4 of it's travel and then that last 1/4 its no more open, in fact it almost seems to close a little bit. So, from closed to open the valve really only had to move a little over 1/4 of it's overall travel. I chose to drill out a little bit of material at the barely open part of the valve so that the first 1/2 of travel now actually opens a little bit near the end of that movement. Overall, I think the open-to-closed is closer to 1/2 the overall travel now.

Once modified, installing the coolant lines part was fairly easy. I cut a short stretch off of the return line, and added that to the return off the heater. To that I attached the valve, minding the indicated direction of coolant flow marked on the side. Last, I connected the supply and return lines and then removed the vice grips. I am not 100% thrilled with the routing of the hoses and will incorporate a 45* angle so they are not forced so route to low. After this picture was taken, I shortened the return line another inch or so to reduce the droop a little bit. I poured a bunch of water into the coolant bottle and called it a day as it was starting to get dark.

Plenum

I returned the following morning to complete the job. In a typical install of one of these Maradyne heaters, either the purchaser connects 3" hoses to the outlets or maybe some directional vents (neither are included). Remaining a-typical, I assembled a 4 sided plenum, like the one before it, held together with the higher-end flashy ducting tape.. The top is a 13" by 5" rectangle with 1" long drop-down sides, with a 45* angled rear tail and an up-turned front (image on the right). The bottom is 13" long by 4" (with 1" drop-sides along the shorter edge) and the plenum sides are right triangles with 4" long sides. Remaining ever cost-conscious, I cut material from the old furnace intake. Recall, it was 15" square, so I cut up one side and got 13" length with 1" for the drop-sides with one cut. I taped on the top and bottom first, then the sides, and closed up all the gaps. I get this is not exactly contours-quality... this is far from that. This is all about getting on the road with whatever heat I can extract from a TDI engine. Besides, the last taped-together plenum lasted a few years and would have continued had I not torn it apart for this install.

Electrical

Before I got started on the electrical, I looked back on the post I wrote about the Vanagon rear-seat-heat fans (See Defrosting - Part 4). I discovered that the fan switch that I bought for that install was the exact same as the one that delivered with the Maradyne fans, just with a different knob. So, while I could run new wires and replace the switch, I didn't need to. So, I didn't. Instead, I cut the 3-wire plug off the fan power wires and the ring terminal, leaving enough material so I could reuse it somewhere later. I added female spade connectors to the four wires. I could easily identify the ground wire and low-fan wire so I connected those and tested the fan. Success! And even on low, this fan is more powerful than the Vanagon rear-seat-heat unit on medium. It probably rivals that unit on high, in terms of airflow, but not fan noise. This is super quiet: no fan noise, only the sounds of the rush of air.

With a multi-meter, I confirmed which of the remaining 2 disconnected wires was the wire for medium. I decided that since I had a strong 12V signal, I would reuse the relays and simply wire up the fan. This was also much easier and it insurers that the wires won't melt when I turn the fan on one of the higher settings. The air flow on the "medium" setting is considerable. Boo and I have noticed that the heat in ToyoTruck is most effective on the not-highest setting, concluding that the air speed is so high on the highest setting, it is unable to pull heat out of the heater core as it passes through. As I wired up the high fan, I considered that we could have a similar issue in Hapy now, and may really only use the lower 2 speeds. Time will tell.

Any time the coolant system is open, there are a series of engine runs or test drives followed by adding water and coolant until it levels off. Since I did not need to drive Hapy during the week following this work, I didn't run the engine. Instead, I prepared for "part 2".

The inlets for the fans are drawing outside air and the control valve is still managed by rolling under the bus. I'll get to the valve eventually, but I don't want to wait too long. The drawing outside air, however, needs to be considered right away. As it is, a drive through one of our seemingly ever-present puddles and I've got warm fog blowing up on the windscreen. At least until I route the fan inlets to the bus interior. Since wet season will persist for another few months, I got after changing the air source shortly after I completed this post. I added the image on the right here to illustrate the first problem I encountered: the return coolant line runs straight through where an air inlet would go. Of course, the support bracket isn't helping either.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Hapy Speedometer Cable replaced

I mentioned in my last NewOldHouse posting that Hapy's speedometer suddenly stopped working on the way home from a party. It worked on the drive there, but didn't on the way home. Fortunately, there was lots of traffic for me to keep pace with ,but it's still annoying not having a speeod. Today's post covers the adventure of replacing the speedometer cable. Before I begin, today's my birthday, so Hapy Birthday to me, I guess.

Symptoms

working on concrete!

It makes sense to start with the symptoms I noted before the speedometer stopped working. Other than the obvious of it not working, during the drives prior, I noticed that the speedometer needle was bouncing an awful lot. This is often a sign that the cable is binding either due to age or because it hasn't been lubricated recently. Since it was the original cable, and I had never lubricated it (I know bad owner), I concluded that the cable had broken. Had I recognized these symptoms earlier, perhaps I could have prevented the failure. Ultimately, I am not sure the cable actually broke, but at this point in my process, my conclusion seemed solid. Before I began, I disconnected the battery. I did not want to pop a fuse or smoke another wire.

Removing

Someone posted on the Samba that replacing a speedometer cable took 15 minutes. I know better, and assumed it would take me hours, which proved correct. Because of the size of the holes through which the cable passes, it can only be removed one way: from the wheel up through the back of the dash. So, I started with raising the driver-side front corner and removing the front wheel, and then the grease cap. With a pair of pliers, I removed the hard rubber boot on the rear of the wheel (that the speedo cable passes through) and then pulled the cable through. I wiped off the grease and then got under the bus, pressing back the 2 sets of tabs that hold the cable to the underside. Then, the cable easily pulls through to the front of the bus.

Next, I reached around the steering column and detached the cable. In Hapy, the cable actually enters a converter box that creates a wave pulse for collecting speed and mileage for the TDI computer. I hadn't connected the wiring for that, but it was between the speedo cable and the speedometer. With the speedometer disconnected, I could pull it up through, feeding from below with one hand while pulling taught with the other. Once the cable was out, I tried turning each end, and watched the other end turn, albeit sporadically. So, the cable was good, but not working very well. Since I had a brand new cable, I decided to keep going.

Preparing

cable lubrication

I took the new cable over to the side and started working silicone-based cable lubricant into it. My process was fairly simple: shoot some into the speedometer-end of the cable until it pooled up to the lip. Then, wiggle and turn the cable from the other end until the puddle disappeared into the cable sheathing. I repeated this may times. Once I was satisfied that there was a lot of lubricant inside the cable sheathing, I laid the cable flat so the lubricant could spread out and took a long lunch.

I added a little bit of lubricant to the outside of the wheel-end of the cable so I could easily add the rubber boot and then started my re-install. I had purchased 2 circlips for the wheel end of the cable and a new grease cap. I shot the new grease cap with some wheel paint so the brassy cap would not be so grossly out of place. 

Installing

I started by passing the cable from behind the dash, choosing to not pass it through the oval hole in the steering column support. Why? That hole seemed to prevent the cable from easily installing, and actually seemed to force the cable to bend unnaturally. By skipping the hole, the cable had a much more gradual curve back behind the dash. Time will tell if this was a poor decision. Finding the hole through the floor in the nose proved to be the single most time-consuming part of my process. Since I had added holes and electric cables, I had more wrong ones to chose from. Once I found it (there are 2 original holes, one directly in front of the other. The speedo goes through the one that's rearward), the cable easily passed through and I was able to route it the rest of the way to the wheel. I refrained from securing the secure-to-body tabs at this point so I had the most play in the cable at the wheel.

I slid the rubber boot on and then passed the cable through the wheel. I left myself plenty of excess so I could add the grease cap and circlip. I found, however, that the new grease cap did not fit. It is just a hair too small. After many attempt to make it work, I abandoned the new cap and switched back to the original. Because of the nature of the grease cap, I found the grease had found its way to the edge where the cap needed to seat on the wheel. With grease on that lip, the cap would not rotate with the wheel. I think this may have been part of the bouncing speedometer needle. To remedy, I cleaned the edge of the cap and the seating lip with brake cleaner, careful not to let it near the greased wheel inside. Once clean, the cap fit on correctly and rotated in time when the wheel spun.

Satisfied with the cable attached to the wheel, I added a touch of silicone grease to outer edge of the rubber boot and fit it into the hole. I tried to fit it without the lubricant, and it would force the grease cap off. With the lubricant, the rubber seated and the cable is set. I moved to the body-securing tabs next and closed them snug. Last, I returned to the behind the dash to connect the cable.

Extra Conditions

Hapy as album cover

It was at this point, that I started to question the quality of the speedometer cable converter box. When disconnected from everything, spinning one end of the converter had no resistance: is spun normally. If I connected it to the back of the speedo and gave it a spin, the needle would move. What was interesting was when I connected the cable to other side of the box. The output would not be fluid consistent. I could spin the wheel and see the cable rotate freely by itself but as soon as I connected it to the converter box, the converter box output was all over the place. At this point I concluded that the box was the main problem. Since I had not been capturing or using the output of the box, I decided to not integrate it, connecting the cable directly to the rear of the speedo like everyone else.

To test, I spun the wheel a few times and I could see the odometer slightly move in the 10th-of-mile. I concluded that the main issue was resolved. Since I was back behind the dashboard again, I needed to confirm I hadn't done anything wrong, so I verified the running lights, fans and hazards after reconnecting the battery.

That's it for today. While it was a little frustrating getting the cable replaced, it re-excited me about working on Hapy. I have a serious backlog of things I want to do, so if the weather is willing, and I have some time, maybe I'll get after one of them next weekend. Thanks, as always, for following along-

NewOld Kitchen progresses

Quick check-in post today on the state of the kitchen. Most of this work is being done by others while I work my 9-5 and then Boo and I clean up or move stuff around on the evenings and weekends. The construction has been moving at an incredible pace after so many months of seemingly slow-go. To be fair, I was only really getting after it on weekends versus a crew working multiple days. So, it's probably not fair to me to compare. On the personal side, my band's EP (find detail here) released on Groundhog's Day (2-Feb) and my sister came to visit for the following week. 

Where Were We

current state

Once the floors were finished, we could get moving forward on the kitchen. Consider, we have been living without a kitchen for about a year. Instead of a kitchen, it has been a version of an efficiency apartment where we have a fridge, but only a crockpot, a single burner hot plate, a microwave and a hot pot for making food. I suspect most folks, at least Americans, would have lived on take-out food. Had this project only lasted a few weeks, we might have gone that route. Into our 12th month like this, however, yeah, we could not afford that. After the plumbing work I described last time was completed, our electrical rough-in was done by our friend Gary.

Electrical Started

For electrical, we simply focused on the "sink wall", making sure we had juice where we needed it for the dishwasher and disposal, as well as some over-counter outlets. Last, he ran a line for task lighting over the sink. Since that initial work, he returned to run the 220V for the wall oven and the 110V for the fridge. He will return to run lines for the stove and some additional outlets.

Drywall and Cabinet Set

rough plumbing done

With the electric on the "sink wall" done, Ray, our general contractor was able to get the drywall repairs completed. This included some of the rough bits around the new rear door, the holes for the old furnace location, the false beam where I removed that wall and everywhere else in the main kitchen space. Once drywalled, mudded and sanded, they primed and then painted. Once dry, the "sink wall" cabinet was cut down to fit the dishwasher, and both were set in place. They continued by installing the pantry cabinet and fridge, and then the cooktop peninsula. The cooktop peninsula, similar to the sink wall cabinet, was cut down to fit our space. Again, most folks design and buy cabinets to fit the space. We bought and are customizing. Considering the cost of new cabinetry, both in terms of dollars and environmental impact, this path is far less expensive on both counts.

So we could get a sense of the workability of the space, Ray cut down some 3/4" plywood for countertops and pin-nailed them into place. The cabinets along the once-furnace-wall have not been cut down and installed yet but already it feels like there is considerable space to work in. We have not had a kitchen in a while, so it is more pronounced for us, but visitors have made similar observations: for what looked like a really small space from outside, it is looking like it will be very functional with lots of counter space. Boo and I have been calling it the TARDIS-effect. Dr. Who fans unite.

Water and Gas

setting pantry depth

For the water rough-in, the plumber did everything he could that did not require a permit. From that point forward, the work is either mine to complete, or I need to get permits and farm it out. Boo and I decided to split the difference: I do the work, but have the gas plumbing inspected by the gas company. Fortunately, the water is quite simple these days: shut off the main, release the pressure (dumping water down the drain) and do the work. In terms of the work, there are shark-bite valves that are no-solder connections. I simply cut off the closed nipple on the end of the pipe and attached the shark-bite around the pipe. It really is that simple. Once the valves were on, we could re-pressurize the system and check for leaks. Seriously, it was that easy; I have no idea why that part of the plumbing needs a permit while the pipes in the walls don't. 

For the gas line, we ran 3/4" pipe from the "T" near the furnace over to the peninsula in the crawlspace, but did not connect it. Instead, where the union will be, we capped it off. At the peninsula, we necked down the 3/4" pipe to 1/2" per standard to pass through the floor. Above the floor, we added a pressure gauge. All of the joints were coated with pipe-dope, of course. We applied air-pressure into the pipe run (from cap near the "T" to the pressure gauge) to 15 psi to verify there were no leaks. As of the publishing of this post, the pressure is still holding at 15 psi. We did all this so we could document it with pictures for the gas company inspector. We do not have the inspection scheduled yet, but after 5 days of holding 15psi, I think we have demonstrated we are good. I expect to finish the gas line next weekend.

what's next

That's as far as we've gotten in the last couple of weeks. It has been a whirlwind of activity, though. Next up will be the construction of a cabinet to hold the wall oven, installing the oven into that and then installing the cabinets along that wall. We have not made any decisions about upper cabinets in the main work area. At this point, however, we are considering leaving the walls without upper cabinets nor open shelving. We have a cabinet we call "the Archie" that we expect to install next to the oven cabinet (on the all in the picture on the right, here). It is possible that it will be the only upper cabinet. Again, we'll see how it evolves.

Thanks, as always, for following along. Hapy broke his speedometer cable a couple of days ago, so I will be posting on that replacement as soon as I've completed that.